Thinking beyond pre-colonial nostalgia â the challenge for young African scholars

This story has significance for readers across Africa and beyond.

In an era where emerging technologies blur the lines between physical, digital and biological systems, combining AI, automation and machine learning, young African scholars must step forward to challenge outdated, recycled ideologies and dominant public narratives.

The traditional factory model of employment has been permanently disrupted by automation, robotics and AI. The demand for humans on the factory assembly line has decreased. Job security is declining. Microchips are now the key engine of productivity growth. Modern business supply chains are increasingly global, with input sourcing, manufacturing, product distribution, logistics and marketing operating across multiple countries.

Many industrial countries now develop laboratory-grown minerals. Some developed countries are searching for minerals in space and near-Earth asteroids. China and Saudi Arabia are greening deserts. China is growing agricultural products in the laboratory. Israel produces soil-free, organic crops on city rooftops.

Dramatic changes are disrupting societal and cultural norms, institutions and identities. Digital friends, work-from-home and the gig economy have replaced real-life connections, communities and face-to-face get-togethers. People may be more digitally connected, but they are more isolated. Single-parent, child-headed households and non-traditional intimate partnerships are more common. The once fixed assumptions about how men and women should exercise their roles are gone. Many political, cultural and religious institutions have lost public trust.

These deep, irreversible structural disruptions demand new kinds of leadership, new ideas and imagination, and new approaches to problem-solving in South Africa and Africa, which slogan-shouting, rigid political, economic, religious and cultural ideologies will not solve.

Sadly, the public discourse in many African countries, including South Africa, remains frozen in an immediate post-colonial period mindset. Some Africans still call for simplistic solutions to the continentâs problems, encapsulated by sayings such as âgive back the landâ, or calls for a return to mythical pre-colonial communal African relations. Others complacently say Africa is rich because of its abundance of minerals, when industrial and emerging powers are now producing minerals in the laboratory or seeking them in space.

Some Africans also call for supposedly African-style education, when the developing countries that have become prosperous, such as Singapore, China and South Korea, have done so by outcompeting former colonial powers in education, specifically mathematics, technology and research. Many African policy intellectuals still talk about factory-created jobs, when the developing countries that prospered did so by initially manufacturing export products the world needs, and now making semiconductors essential to the global economy.

Failed policies

South African policymakers often champion economic approaches â such as elite-focused black empowerment programmes, property expropriation and state nationalisation â that have repeatedly failed across the continent. Meanwhile, they neglect the core pillars that powered transformations in China, South Korea, and Singapore: export-driven manufacturing, world-class education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and meritocratic, corruption-free public administration.

Although democracy has fostered stability, growth and individual freedoms worldwide, many African leaders and intellectuals dismiss it as unsuitable for the continent. Yet history shows that non-democratic systems â military regimes, autocracies and dominant one-party rule â have consistently produced civil conflict, state collapse and severe poverty in Africa. Conversely, the few African nations that embraced democracy have achieved greater stability and development.

What does it mean to be a young, engaged African scholar in todayâs uncertain and complex world?

It requires rejecting uncritical allegiance to political, religious or cultural figures, as well as resisting mindless slogans and inherited dogmas. Young scholars must question fundamentalist doctrines and rigorously re-evaluate the political, economic and social assumptions passed down through family, community and public discourse.

Intellectual curiosity

Be curious. Intellectual curiosity is the difference between just being a good worker and being an outstanding professional. Intellectual curiosity is described as oneâs willingness âto learn, understand, and explore new ideas beyond surface-level factsâ or popular assumptions and beliefs.

Chris Wiese of the CFA Institute rightly says that the intellectually curious are less âlikely to take things at face valueâ and more inclined to notice when something does not make sense. The intellectually curious are âalso less attached to being right, so are more likely to gather more insights and adapt if new information comes upâ. Intellectually curious individuals are better able to solve complex problems as they âtend to explore different approaches, look for ideas across disciplines, and find solutions that are different from the normâ.

Read widely, beyond obligatory university textbooks. Read across genres, disciplines and regions. This will expand your knowledge, intellect and analytic capacity. Reading widely, across genres and disciplines builds the intellectual curiosity muscle.

Widespread reading â both individually and collectively â is vital for national development, prosperity and social cohesion. No modern nation has ever prospered with low literacy rates, as poor reading habits directly undermine development, democracy, and nation-building in diverse societies.

South Africa suffers from the lowest individual reading rates among emerging nations, severely threatening democracy, development and nation-building. A functioning democracy fails when most citizens cannot read basic laws or comprehend reports detailing the corruption, incompetence and wrongdoings of public officials. Without mass literacy, accountability collapses â undermining effective governance, state performance and national economic growth.

Reading widely also helps challenge outdated individual beliefs.

Ask yourself:

Are the beliefs you have inherited yours?

Do these beliefs make sense?

Are they appropriate for our constitutional, democratic, racially diverse and technology-driven times?

Over the past century, every society that successfully transformed from underdevelopment to industrialisation â such as China, Japan and Singapore â radically audited, modernised, and upgraded its cultural beliefs, traditions, and economic and educational models. China abolished its monarchy, Japan built world-leading export manufacturing giants and Singapore established a strictly merit-based society.

Outdated cultures

Almost all of the 54 African countries have retained outdated pre-colonial cultures, traditions, education, technologies and strongman leadership models, which make these countries vulnerable to conquest by technologically advanced colonial powers. Ancient societies like those of China, Japan or South Korea, have in response to Western colonialism and oppression, upgraded their cultural and traditional beliefs, educational institutions, industries and technology development to compete with or outcompete former Western colonial powers.

Sadly, public and political discourse across much of Africa remains trapped in nostalgia for a pre-colonial past â an era entirely unsuited to the demands of todayâs AI-driven world. Instead of embracing strategic modernisation, societies elevate bombastic leaders better fitted to bygone eras or cling to a victim mindset rooted in historical grievances. This backward-looking focus drains critical energy away from restructuring educational and cultural institutions, building industrial capacity, and electing leaders equipped with the knowledge and strategic competence required for the 21st century.

Furthermore, many South African politicians mistakenly project their narrow local, township or ethnic provincialism onto the entire nation. Forward-thinking scholars and citizens must reject these narrow lenses to meet the challenges of a globalised world.

Develop your agency. Rather than waiting on others â whether politicians, political parties, government or religious organisations â to save you, actively build your own future. Develop your entrepreneurial muscle. Rather than sitting on the sidelines, see if you can solve a societal or market need.

Do not fall into victimhood, scapegoating and blaming âenemiesâ â whether those of different colours, different ethnic groups or different religions â for your lack of advancement. Get out of the scarcity mindset, which argues wrongly, that if others do well, you will lose out.

Adopt a growth mindset as articulated by the US psychologist Carol Dweck in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through hard work and effective strategies; and that failures should be seen as learning opportunities and challenges should be embraced.

Grow your resilience muscle. Resilience is the mental and emotional capacity to recover from difficulties, failures and stresses. Learn from mistakes. Try to solve seemingly large problems by tackling them in small bits. Accept your emotions as real, without passing any judgements. However, do not let your emotions drive your actions. Ask for help when you feel you are not coping.

Pursue lifelong learning. Make inner development a life-long project. Stay physically active throughout your life.

Make friendships beyond your ethnicity, community, language and country. This will enrich your life, deepen your knowledge, experiences and networks. When you study abroad, actively participate in university organisations and local community life, and engage with people from other cultures. Learn the local language, new skills and explore the country you are studying in, including its development model.

Act with integrity in both your physical and digital life. Treat others with respect, empathy and compassion, and actively pursue social justice regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or colour.

Maintain this same integrity across your digital footprint and social media activity. Avoid insults, defamation and online toxicity. Social media is a permanent, public record â your online behaviour is visible to current and future employers, partners, clients and key stakeholders alike.

Have gratitude for the scholarship, funding and help you receive from others to support your studies.

What does gratitude mean in practice? It means giving back to your community through mentorship, advocacy and direct contributions of time, resources and networks to scholarship and social justice initiatives.

It takes shape in concrete, everyday actions: volunteering on local development projects, starting your own community programmes, promoting literacy, donating blood or organs, and protecting the environment. It means organising neighbourhood cleanups, joining a local police community forum, or serving on the governing board of an under-resourced school â even if you do not have children attending. Supporting physical and mental health initiatives is equally vital.

Ultimately, gratitude means living as a responsible, active and socially conscious citizen in a democratic society. DM

Reporting originally appeared via Daily Maverick. Read the full source for additional context.